Official papers relating to operations performed by order of the directors of the Royal Hospital for Seamen ... for the purpose of ascertaining the general efficacy of the new modes of treatment practised by Mr. Adams, for the cure of the various species of cataract, and the Egyptian ophthalmia.

  • Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Official papers relating to operations performed by order of the directors of the Royal Hospital for Seamen ... for the purpose of ascertaining the general efficacy of the new modes of treatment practised by Mr. Adams, for the cure of the various species of cataract, and the Egyptian ophthalmia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Apotliecary, to your Institution ; ^vhicb, with ttie per- sonal examination you intend this day to make of the two sets of Patients, must necessarily establish, beyond all doubt, the decided superiority of my modes of ope- vatiuf^, over tliat which had been previously practised on the Pensioners. And here I beg leave to repeat tlie observation I made at my first interview with your Honourable Board, that it is the operation^ and not the operator^ which I depre- cate. Were lie to adopt my operations, or were 1 to follow Ids, the results of the two modes of practice would probably be nearly the same as they are now found to be ; nor shall I hesitate to add my firm belief, that su- perior manual dexterity is not to be found in this king- dom, than is possessed by the operator whose efforts have proved so unavailing, in the many instances sub- ndtted to your consideration. It is, I conceive, the want of a personal experience of the superior efficacy of my practice, which prevents his adopting it with the same promptitude as another Oculist of long-established celebrity has done, since he saw me operate ; who, be- fore that period, was distinguished by his. practice, as well as writings, as one of the warmest advocates of the operation of Extraction. It may be proper to inform your Honourable Board that I have not confined myself to any individual ope- ration in the treatment of tlie Pensioners blind of Cata- ract intrusted to my care. My instruments and modes of operating have varied as the nature of the case required. Where the consistence of the Cataract has admitted of an immediate and complete division, I have placed the separated portions in a situation which ensured their absorption in five or six weeks. In these cases, the gc-